Adding machine



W. W. LASKER ADDING MACHINE Filed July 23, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jan. 26, 1932.

w TNESS @y W. W. LASKER ADDING MACHINE Jan. 2 6, 1932.

Filed July 23, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 NVENTOR w -r/vEss Patented Jan. 26, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM W. LASKER, F BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0 REMINGTON RAND INC., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE ADDING MACHINE i Application led July 23,

The present invention relates to adding, accounting, tabulating or any other machine of a kindred nature, and relates more 'particularly to the accumulating or total mechanism of such a machine or machines.

Some of the objects of the present invention are to provide an improved accumulating and total mechanism for adding, tabulating and accounting machines; to provide means for varying an accumulating mechanism at will toV function in response only to predetermined columns of perforated record cards to provide an accumulating mechanism having flexibility of control as an advantageouscharacteristic; to provide means for splitting an accumulating mechanism into operative and inoperative groups at will; to provide means whereby a group in a totalling mechanism can be enlarged at will for accumulating and totalling; and to provide other improvements as will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawings Fig. l1 represents a fragmental section in elevation of a machine'equipped with a number carrying bar lock mechanism embodying one form of the present invention; Fig. 2 represents a plan in part section of the number bars and the locking mechanism therefor; Fig. 8 represents a front elevation, in part broken away, of the bar locking mechanism; Fig. 4 represents an enlarged'detail of one of the bar latches and its ad]unct s in unlatched position; and Fig. 5 represents the same with the latch in latch locked position.

Referring to the drawings, one form of the present invention is shown as applied to an adding machine 10 of the type controlled by Aperforated record cards 11 which are fed one by one from a hopper 12 by means including feed rolls 13 to registering position upon a perforated plate 14 between spring pressed stop pins 15 and spring pressed analyzing pins 16 of the reciprocable pin box 17. After an analyzing operation with its accompanying set-up of a stop pin 15 in a row of the pins 15,'the card 11 is fed by rolls 18 to the receiving magazine 20. In this type of machine each row of the stop pins 15 is above and alined with a reciprocable arm 21 hav- 1925. serial No. `45,576.

ing a stop 22 which is arranged to abut the set pin 15 of the row when it is automatically released to the action of its spring 23. The arms 21 are respectively connected to number or digit bars 24, each of which has a digit strip 25 on one edge and a rack 26 on its 0pposite edge, the former serving to ybring the selected digit beneath a sight opening 27 in a plate 28, and the latter to roll in an accumulation on the pinions 30 of the accumulating mechanism 29. The arms 21 are pivoted to the bars 24 on staggered pivots 50 and each of them has a depending arm to which is connected one of the springs 23. The tension of these springs is mainly exerted to draw the bars 21-24 leftward in Fig. 1,'but they also tend to swing the bars 21 upward about their pivots 50. The stop lug 22 on each bar 21 normally engages a shoulder of the lower plate 51 in which the pins 15 are guided. When any one of these pins is depressed it pushes the bar 21 downward so that it releases it from the said shoulder.

The bars 24 are operated by a transverse bar 24 which reciprocates left and right in Fig. l in a manner well-known in the art. AfterY the pins 15 have been set and the corresponding bars 21 released, then when the bar 24 moves leftward the bars 24 all follow it as far as the pins 15 will permit. The register pinions 30 are disengaged during this operation, but are re-engaged with the racks 26 just'before the return stroke of the bar24 so that the numbers represented by the pins 15 and corresponding to the perforationsin the card will be added on the register wheels.

The totalsindicated on the register Wheels may be read in a manner well understood in adding machines. In some such machines the register pinions bear the ten digits which can be read directly. In the form of the invention shown in the drawings the wheels are not readily visible but can be read after the ordinary manner of taking totals in these machines. The register wheels can first be moved into engagement with the racks as shown in Fig. 1 and all of the bars 2l can be released by any suitable` means. On an operation of the operating mechanism of the 100 machine the bar 24 will move forward and allow all the bars 24 to be moved forward by their springs 23. Each bar will then be arrested by the transfer lug 52 of its register wheel striking the abrupt face 53 of the transfer dog 54. The numbers indicated b v the register wheels can then be read through the sight opening 27 and can be recorded. I i" now'the register wheels be depressed to their lower position before the bar 24 is restored to its normal position all of the register wheels will be left at zero. f

Mechanism suitable for carrying out these operations is familiar in adding machines and is only conventionally shown here.

In'this type of machine, whether a simple adding machine, an accounting machine, or a printing tabulator, there are generally as many number bars 24 as there are columns on the' record card so that every column perforation causes its bar 24 to indicate the digit corresponding to the perforation, all of which is understood in the art and need not be here further described. Such machines of the rior art, however, operate whenever a peroration appears in a card and each field of the card functions and operates as a' separate unit upon its section of the a-dding mechanism and it is impossible to eect any variation from such operation.

Itis often desirable to make variations in the card field arrangement so that a variable number 'of columns can be thrown together for combination adding, or it maybe desirable to omit a field entirely by rendering its adding section ineffective, and to that end the present invention overcomes the disadvantages of prior machines and gives a highly desirable flexibility so that adding can take place to accord with the arrangement desired or with the arrangement of the fields of special or any other cards.

For the purpose, therefore, of splitting up the numeral bars 24 into sections according to any given arrangement within the limits of avrecord card, each number bar 24 is provided at its otherwise free end with a latch 31 pivoted at 32,thereon and having a release arm 33 extended over and resting upon a restoring'rod 34 which is common to all of the arms 33. Each latch 31 lies in the path of the inclined face 35 of a catch 36 on a lock detent 37 which is slidably mounted on and through a fixed angle strip 38 mounted across the end of the machine 10 so that the projecting ends of the detents 37 are readily accessible for manual actuation.

As a means 'for retaining the latch detents 37 in either of their two positions, each is provided with two edge notches 40 and 41 for cooperationwith a locking plate 42 which is attached to the vertical face of the strip 38 by studs 43 fixed to the strip 38 and passing respectively through slots 44 of the plate 42 and so inclined that movement of the plate 42 to the right as seen in Fig. 3 will cause the plate to lift out of engagement with the notches 40 or 41 of all of the detents. One

end of the plate 42 is outwardly turned toform a thumb-piece 45 for readily releasing seating in the notch 40. When it is desired to throw certain of the bars 24 out of use the detents 37 for such bars are released by first drawing the plate 42 endwise to lift it out of the detent notches 40, and then those selected v detents 37 are pushed in to first raise their latches 31 so that they then can drop back of the catches 36 to hold the selected bars 24 and prevent them from responding to an analyzing step. In this position the locking plate 42 seats in the notches 41 of the set detents 37 and rigidly locks the parts against movement. Thus, while the analyzing unit functions from the record on the perforated card, the bars 24 only register a total for those bars which have been set-up.

In order to release the set latches 31,from the catches 36, the restoring rod 34 is mounted between angle arms 48 which are pivoted at 49 and when swung upward acts upon the release arms 33 to withdraw the latches 31 from the catches 36 so that the detents 37 can be pulled to' inoperativeposition when the lock plate 42 is lifted out of the notches 41 and is returned to engage notches 40 to lock they detents in inoperative position.

From the foregoing it will be apparent by the present inventionthat the number registering or total bars of a machine of this character can be split up into fields to accord with certain predetermined perforated data on the cards and as a result only those total bars selected in the set-up are operative for the desired purpose, and while the functioning of the analyzing unit takes place irrespective 'of the total bar set-up, totals are only obtained for the fields or groups, or combi-` nations of fields or groups as selected by splitting the total bars in the manner predetermined through the use of the detents 37. By this arrangement it will also be evident that the number of rack-bars 24 can not only be increased at will to accord with an increase f of the columns in a field 4of the card but also increased for accumulating and carrying over where the total is certain to exceed in length the ordinary number of bars 24 for such group.

It may be worth while to give one instance to illustrate the manner in which this mechanism can be used. The perforated cards usually have one field or zone devoted to perforations to indicate group designations and when the cards are run through a machine of the character above described the cards have usually been sorted so that all of the cards of a certain group are together and are fed one after another through the machine.

The operator may set to operative position the catches 36 in the designation zone. Vhen the first card of a group is analyzed the bar 34 may be raised allowing the group designation to be entered on the register wheels along with the other numbers. Soon after the bar 24 begins its first stroke the bar 34 may be dropped to its normal position. On the re turn stroke of the bar 24 the bars 24 of the designation zone will all be automatically relocked by their latches 31 snapping in behind the catches 36 when the bars are restored to normal or home position. The effect of this will be? that the group designation will be added on the register wheels but once and will remain there until the cards of that group have all been analyzed and the operator of the machine is ready to read the totals. When setting the machine for reading the to tals as above described he will also operate the bar 34 so that the designation will appear in its proper place in the sight opening 27 along with all the other numbers to be copied from the registering mechanism.

It Will be seen that this mode of operation is rendered possible by reason of the fact that the latches 31 are so arranged and controlled n that they can all be released at once by a common means and so that upon the restoration of the bars 24 they will automatically be caught again.

While only a single form is shown in Which thisinventi'on may be embodied, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to any specific construction, but might be applied to various forms without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a machine of the class described, the I combination oi" a plurality of adding racks, settable stops for controlling the extent of diierential movement of said racks in adding operations, means for preventing control of any of said racks by their stops in adding operations, and means superseding said preventing means to permit all of said racks to be controlled by their stops.

2. In a machine of the class described, the combination of a plurality of adding racks, settable stops for controlling the extent of movement of said racks in adding operations',

retaining means for each rack operable indi-` vidually for retaining any rack in its home position during an adding operation, common means for simultaneously locking certain of' said retaining means in their functioning position and others in their non-functioning position, and means for disabling said retaining means locked 1n functiomng position.

3.' In a machine of the class describedthe combination of an adding rack, a latch pivoted thereon, and a slidable catch adapted in its operated position to engage said latch, and means for moving said latch out of engagement with said catch.

4. In a machine of the class described, the combination of adding racks, latches pivoted thereon, catches for said latches selectively 1re-engagement therebetween after said com-` mon disabling means is moved into its nonfunctioning position. D

6. The combination with card sensing means and tabulating mechanism controlled thereby and including a series of differentially movable members, of means settable at will to latch particular ones of said difterential members against operation, means common to all of said latching, means for releasing them for an operation of the machine, and means for automatically re-latching sald released means.

7 In a machine of the class described, the combination of adding racks, mechanism settable so as normally to cause an operation of said racks to add numbers, selectively and individually settable means for retaining sald racks against adding movement even though said mechanism would otherwise have caused an operation of them, and a single means for disabling all of the first recited means during an operation of the machine, the functioning of the first means being resumed after the disabling means has been returned into nonfunctioning position. 'f

Signed at New York, county of New York, State of New York, this 13 day of July, 1925.

WILLIAM W. LASKER. 

